Drop Shipping from Local Market

11 years ago

I'm sure if you approached the store offering them a pretty good deal and increased turnover, they'd be all over that.

In addition, if you offered your customers a good price, excellent customer service, quality products at a market worth of the item, then there is no reason why it wouldn't be feasible.

It's not always about prices, remember. You need to attract traffic, convince them to buy, and ultimately convert that traffic -- and it's is always SO much more than just price.

(Take the zappos.com story for example)

ADE

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OnlineStoreHelp 11 years ago

I did the same with some of the local coffee providers here in Hawaii. Since they didnt have an online presence anyway this put them online and I could take the mark up. Many of them sold at the farmers market so their was a built in customer base from tourists looking to buy when they left the islands.

Are you going to target philipinos that came to the US. Smart idea actually...
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alksense

11 years ago

One of my first eCommerce ventures back in 2006 was selling items that are only available in New York and shipping them all over the world.

It blew up almost right away with tons of traffic, orders and repeat customers. Most of my customers were people who had previously lived in NY, relocated, and couldn't find the products in their new cities. I had tons of repeat orders and my customers shared my stores info with other friends/family that had who relocated as well.

It did so well that one of the brands I sold for took notice and actually made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I sold them the business after being open for less then a year.

I know there are a lot of people from Pakistan living in the US. If you can find items that they might "miss" that are only available back home or even just hard to find in the US I would definitely find out how to target those potential customers and proceed.

Good Luck!
Anton

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rana1863

11 years ago

Originally Posted by alksense

One of my first eCommerce ventures back in 2006 was selling items that are only available in New York and shipping them all over the world.

It blew up almost right away with tons of traffic, orders and repeat customers. Most of my customers were people who had previously lived in NY, relocated, and couldn't find the products in their new cities. I had tons of repeat orders and my customers shared my stores info with other friends/family that had who relocated as well.

It did so well that one of the brands I sold for took notice and actually made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I sold them the business after being open for less then a year.

I know there are a lot of people from Pakistan living in the US. If you can find items that they might "miss" that are only available back home or even just hard to find in the US I would definitely find out how to target those potential customers and proceed.

Good Luck!
Anton

Great Idea, Anton! I personally think there are many such products that people miss in foreign countries including US. Is there any country specific keyword tool to check the demand for such items? Will the Google Adward Keyword Tool do?

But what I originally asked for are not traditional Pakistani products. They are worldwide used items and my concern is whether people will trust and buy when I've no physical location in US, and when they see I am located in Pakistan.

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Auctiondebteliminator

11 years ago

When I lived in Greece I could have sold my soul for a root beer.

Now that I live back in the US I could sell my soul for an authentic Gyro (not the garbage the serve in the Greek restaurants here - I mean the full-on FDA-violation-ridden street stuff!)

So I can definitely see the whole aspect that alksense is saying - relocated people might enjoy the 'local' flair items they missed.

ADE

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kurtbai

11 years ago

I think rana1863 is concerned with the likelihood that when people sees his store is based in Pakistan, they will suspect it's being a scam site, especially with very low prices... am I right rana?

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rana1863

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Auctiondebteliminator

I'm sure if you approached the store offering them a pretty good deal and increased turnover, they'd be all over that.

In addition, if you offered your customers a good price, excellent customer service, quality products at a market worth of the item, then there is no reason why it wouldn't be feasible.

It's not always about prices, remember. You need to attract traffic, convince them to buy, and ultimately convert that traffic -- and it's is always SO much more than just price.

(Take the zappos.com story for example)

ADE

Yes, all these things matter a lot. But what you think about what kurtbai said below:

Originally Posted by kurtbai

I think rana1863 is concerned with the likelihood that when people sees his store is based in Pakistan, they will suspect it's being a scam site, especially with very low prices... am I right rana?

Yes, you are right. But prices are not going to be too good to believe, especially after adding international shipping, but they are going to be good enough to attract and convince people to buy.

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kurtbai

11 years ago

a couple of things to consider:

make sure the products you sell are legit and genuine, and display proof on your site;

make it clear you are shipping the products from Pakistan, and international shipping fees and time are clear to the customers, and make sure if there's going to be any custom tax at all;

become a dropshipper yourself, recruit sellers in the US to re-sell your products, so you just blind dropship for them, or do wholesale.

the last one is the hardest to do, setup a business in the US with US address and merchant bank account. someone on this forum is selling this service, but pretty expensive.

Hope that helps.

Thanks
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Sam England 11 years ago

I think you will need to be transparent about running your business from Pakistan...the general public thinks that they will be scammed...that is my experience from working with eCommerce/Dropshippers for over 10+ years now...

I personally don't mind where a product is coming from as long as I get it in a decent time frame...and it is what I bought and paid for..

The world is your ocean and at your grasp...you can do anything these days...

Have fun and enjoy what you are doing...

Cheers,
Sam
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rana1863

11 years ago

Originally Posted by kurtbai

a couple of things to consider:

make sure the products you sell are legit and genuine, and display proof on your site;

make it clear you are shipping the products from Pakistan, and international shipping fees and time are clear to the customers, and make sure if there's going to be any custom tax at all;

become a dropshipper yourself, recruit sellers in the US to re-sell your products, so you just blind dropship for them, or do wholesale.

the last one is the hardest to do, setup a business in the US with US address and merchant bank account. someone on this forum is selling this service, but pretty expensive.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for some really helpful points. I am on my way to setting up my site now. I will make my location clear to my customers. Custom taxes seem a problem though as they vary from country to country, I am going to make it clear on my site that any custom duties will be buyer's responsibility. I've searched about custom fees for different countries but it varies greatly depending upon both countries(importing from and to) and product imported, but for most of the countries there is a certain limit for duty free imports like packages under $1000 AUD are duty free in Australia. So it seems they are not going to create any major troubles hopefully.

Thanks

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redlegrich

11 years ago

The idea of selling country specialties in the US to the expat community is quite prevalent. I worked for the Aussie government here in Seattle (I am a US citizen) helping Aussie companies export here. There were a number of different online outfits who brought snacks, clothes, candy, beverages, and art over here for sale. The snacks and unique food items are big sellers, but food is always a pain to import.

People want this stuff and pay pretty well for it. I would think well targeted ads on Facebook would do well. Using the product brand name in the ad would work well. Most of the companies are really small and would not mess with you for that.

Thanks

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Igor Pauer

11 years ago

We are dropshipping jewelry for many partners selling to USA from countries like Estonia, Romania, Kazakhstan etc. Some of them have US companies, some not. Some of them are selling well , some not. But definitelly it is possible.

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MLMCoach

11 years ago

You need to push it quite hard. Many people think that just because they have a website people would find it. I worked for a company and they have a slogan 'US Company' as there are a lot of scammers around. But genuineness always pays off. It will take a lot of time and money.